


Stumbling Toward Enlightenment

by Selenay



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Yoga, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Girls Kissing, Happy Ending, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Reluctant CEO Lena Luthor, Romance, Yoga Instructor Sara Lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 19:25:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12282873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selenay/pseuds/Selenay
Summary: Sara Lance is a yoga instructor. Lena Luthor is CEO of Luthor Industries.They're from different worlds, but they might just be exactly what each other needs.





	Stumbling Toward Enlightenment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shopfront](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/gifts).



> Much thanks to my lovely beta, H. Any remaining errors are all mine. Thanks to shopfront for such great prompts! I borrowed the idea of yoga instructor Sara and stressed CEO Felicity and threw Lena in as the CEO, and all this fic happened :-) Who knew I'd have fun writing a mundane AU for this 'verse?

Sara Lance glared at the letter on her desk and swore quietly. Such an innocent thing, a piece of paper, and yet it had so much power in the right--or wrong--hands. Hands like the company who had bought out the man who'd owned the building where she'd been running her yoga studio for the last three years. It had just begun to make real money, too. The kind of money that allowed her to hire a cleaner, instead of doing it herself, and pay her receptionist and the other instructor more than minimum wage.

Not the kind of money that could absorb a doubling in the rent, though. She read the letter again, searching for some scrap of hope, before she folded it and put it in a drawer. Maybe if she reworked the accounts, she could find a way...

There was a knock on the door and it opened just wide enough for Amaya to poke her head through. "Boss, I need a favour."

Sara fought down a sigh and tried to plaster on a smile. She thought it probably looked more like a scowl, but Amaya didn't seem intimidated. "Is this the kind of favour I'm going to like?"

Amaya pushed the door open wider. Sara scooted back in her chair. The office wasn't big enough for someone to sit comfortably and open the door completely, but Amaya was slim and she squeezed through to lean against the filing cabinet.

"I'll take your Saturday boot camp class," Amaya said. "The six AM one."

Sara narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to hate this favour, aren't I?"

"I need you to cover my class tonight," Amaya said. "It's an emergency."

It took Sara a minute to remember the day's class schedule, and then she groaned. "You promised I'd never have to think about that class. That was the deal when you made me add it. I'd never hear about it or think about it."

"I didn't make you add it."

The glare Sara sent her didn't faze Amaya. Nothing really did. It was one of the great things about her, when it wasn't frustrating as hell.

"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't an emergency," Amaya said. "Just this once. It won't be that bad."

"If I end up strangling one of them, you're bringing the bail money," Sara said.

Amaya grinned. "You know I will. Thanks."

"You're doing the boot camp class and the hip hop flow session," Sara said. " _With_ the new Drake album."

The grin didn't falter. Amaya's emergency had to be bad: she had once spent half an hour arguing about why hip hop and yoga shouldn't combine. "You're on. I've emailed you the class plan. Thanks, boss."

Sara waved her away and Amaya took the hint and left, closing the door as quietly as its squeaking hinges allowed. For a while, Sara stared at the accounting spreadsheets, but the numbers wandered across the page and gave her a headache. Even if she gave up the cleaner, there was nowhere in the budget to pay the extra rent, unless she ran so many extra classes, she and Amaya collapsed from exhaustion.

Eventually, she closed down everything and opened Amaya's email.

Yoga for stressed people.

Even the title made Sara wince. She knew the type of people who went to classes like that. They were stressed and unhappy, and they thought an hour of yoga each week would open up a magical chakra that would make everything better. It wouldn't--yoga was great, but it wasn't magic--but it was easier than trying to change their lives so they kept coming back.

At least they paid well. She would need all the high-powered and high-paying clients she could get she wanted to afford the new rent for the studio.

***

Sara folded down onto her yoga mat, cross-legged, and surveyed the room. Nobody looked at her. Nobody even seemed to notice their teacher had entered the room. They were all too busy staring the phones in their hands. Two women were even talking on their phones, in defiance of the big signs posted in the changing room and on the door into the studio. It was everything Sara had predicted and dreaded.

No wonder they were looking for a quick fix for their stress.

She waited for a minute and one man at the back, in the corner, noticed her. He smiled sheepishly and put his phone down. He didn't put it away, she noted, just on the floor beside his mat where he could easily grab it the moment an important email arrived.

Sara forced a serene smile onto her face. "Namaste."

That caught the attention of everyone except the two women hissing into their phones. There was a chorus of clicks as everyone locked their phones and put them down beside their mats.

"There are buckets here at the front of the room," Sara said, gesturing to the plastic bins lining the wall behind her. "For the next hour, we will be moving through a practice that will help you to unwind and release your stress, so I suggest you turn off your phones and put them in the buckets."

Reluctantly, everyone trooped up and put their phones carefully in the bin. Sara stared significantly at the two women who still had phones pressed to their ears until they rolled their eyes and followed their classmates.

She would be willing to bet that half the phones weren't really turned off and at least one would ring before the end of the class. Amaya owed her for this.

When everyone had settled back on their mats, Sara offered another serene smile around the room and triggered the remote to start the music. It was soft and gentle, a low throb of drums with breathy pipes just audible over them. Cliched, yes, but effective for a class like this. She took a slow, deep breath and released it.

There was a soft sigh around the room as everyone followed her. No newbies tonight, then.

"Focus on your breath," Sara said, closing her eyes. "Feel it fill every corner as you breathe in, and let all thoughts of the world outside this room flow out with your exhale."

There was a clatter at the back of the room and Sara's eyes snapped open. The door was swinging shut behind a tall, dark-haired woman who had dropped a water bottle. The woman winced and mouthed an apology as she scooped up the bottle and hurried to an empty spot in the corner. She unrolled an expensive mat and her clothes looked designer, but she had scrubbed off her make-up and her hair was tied back with a ragged blue ribbon.

Sara noted absently that she moved gracefully and there was a spark of something bright and intelligent in her eyes. A flare of something in the base of Sara's belly that had nothing to do with yoga or relaxation caught her by surprise.

She gave herself a mental shake. Lusting after clients was a bad plan.

The woman settled onto her mat and closed her eyes. Sara took a deep breath and began the meditation again.

***

The final pose in most yoga practices is shavasana, or corpse pose, also known as "lie on your back and try to relax" pose. It was harder than most people realised. Sara prowled around the room on silent feet, noting the muscle twitches and the faint stress lines on most of her clients' faces, despite her instruction to relax and empty their minds. Despite the last hour of guided breathing, strenuous poses, and focusing meditation.

They were probably all wondering what waited on their phones. Three had dinged during the class and one had rung insistently until the red-faced owner unwound from pigeon and turned it off.

The late arrival in the corner was the only one who looked relaxed.

Too relaxed.

Sara moved closer and grinned. Judging by the slow breaths and slack expression, the woman had fallen asleep. Sara thought about waking her, but she dismissed the idea immediately. From the dark circles under her eyes, the woman probably needed the sleep.

A few minutes later, Sara sat down and quietly led the class through sitting up, shaking their limbs into motion, before ending with a slow bow and a final "Namaste". The sleeping woman didn't twitch, even when the rest of the class began standing, rolling up their mats, and retrieving their phones.

Most of the phones immediately dinged with a flood of messages and emails, but the sleeping woman in the corner didn't stir. Sara waited while everyone else filed out, already peering at their phones and hunching their shoulders with stress again.

They would be back every week for their hour of pretending they were trying to be less stressed, even though they really weren't.

When the room was quiet, Sara padded over to the woman still sleeping on her expensive mat and crouched down. She was beautiful. Sara sighed internally. She suspected the woman had a gorgeous smile when she was awake and happy. In sleep, she looked relaxed. Maybe even happy.

Sara wondered what she was dreaming about, but she pushed the thought away. No lusting after the clients. No speculating about their smiles. She'd made rules for herself when she set up the studio.

She cleared her throat, but the woman didn't stir.

Crap. Sara didn't like being touched in her sleep, but she couldn't think of any other way to wake the woman, and she had to close the studio up for the night.

Holding her breath, Sara stretched out a hand and tapped the woman's bare shoulder.

Her nose wrinkled. Sara slapped herself for finding it adorable.

Then the woman's long eyelashes fluttered and her eyes opened slowly. A sweet, beautiful smile curved her full lips and Sara's heart stuttered for a moment.

Double crap.

Confusion swept across the woman's face and she sat up so quickly that Sara had to rear back or be smacked on the chin by her forehead. The motion over-balanced Sara and she fell on her butt.

The woman stared around wildly until her eyes caught Sara's and widened for a moment, probably at the inelegant sprawl Sara had landed in. Then she winced and Sara couldn't help it: she laughed. Later, she didn't know if it was the woman's exaggerated expression of mortification or something else, but laughing felt so good, she couldn't stop.

After a minute of stunned staring, the other woman's face relaxed into a smile and she chuckled.

"I fell asleep, didn't I?" the woman said.

"You sure did," Sara said, gasping through a few residual giggles. "I almost didn't want to wake you."

The woman smiled ruefully. "It's the best sleep I've had in months."

"Now I regret waking you up. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be! It's not your fault I'm an insomniac."

"That's why you turned to yoga?"

"A friend recommended it."

"Guess it worked."

"Guess it did." There was a pause, and then the woman stuck her hand out. "I'm Lena."

"Sara." Lena's hand was soft and warm. Sara made herself give a business-like shake and then release it. "Amaya had an emergency."

Lena nodded. "I don't usually fall asleep."

"It happens sometimes."

"The class was exactly what I needed today. I actually felt relaxed at the end, for the first time in...weeks, probably."

"I usually take it as a negative review when women fall asleep on me, but I'll make an exception for you." The words were out before Sara could stop herself.

Crap didn't cover it any more. Usually she had better control over her flirt instincts.

Lena only smiled. It was impossible to tell if she'd noticed or if she was still too sleepy. "It's definitely a positive review this time."

There was something about Lena's smile. A hint of twinkling mischievousness that, on any other day, Sara might have taken for interest. It didn't help that Lena's voice was warm and held a hint of laughter. Making a move on a client was still against Sara's rules for herself, though, so she tried to ignore it.

"I'll tell Amaya that you approved," Sara said. "She'll be relieved that I didn't mess it up."

"You didn't," Lena said, the smile still dancing at the corners of her mouth. "You usually do the high energy classes, don't you? I've seen your name on the schedule."

"Hip hop yoga and bootcamp, that's me."

"Maybe I'll try one of them."

Sara bit down on the instinct to beg her not to. The image of Lena stretching and sweating was too tempting. "You should."

"It's hard to find the time," Lena said. "I have to put fake meetings in my diary just to get to this one."

"You know what they say about all work and no play."

"It leads to naps in the yoga class," Lena said, her smile turning crooked.

Sara shrugged. "If it helped, I don't mind."

"You're too nice."

She wasn't, but Lena didn't need to know that. Sara couldn't think of anything to say. Their eyes met and Sara's breath caught in her throat. For a long, long moment, she couldn't move, caught in Lena's gaze and unable to pull away.

A door slammed somewhere in the building and Sara jumped and blinked, breaking the connection. A hint of pink appeared high on Lena's cheeks and Sara could feel an answering flush rising in her own face.

"I need to close up," Sara said, wincing at the huskiness in her voice. She cleared her throat. "The cleaner will be here soon."

She stood and Lena scrambled to follow, looking uncomfortable. "Of course. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No, no!" Sara said, too quickly. She took a deep breath. "There isn't much to do. Thanks."

Lena began rolling up her mat, working so fast that it ended up an uneven mess, but she didn't seem to care. She wrapped the strap around it and slung it over her shoulder. "I'll go, then. I've got some reports to read before I go to bed tonight."

"No wonder you're not sleeping."

Lena shrugged. "It never stops."

Sara told herself not to watch Lena walking away, but she couldn't help herself. Lena glanced over her shoulder as the door closed and Sara waved. A quick smile flickered at the corners of Lena's mouth, but there were already lines between her brows and Sara had a feeling her attention was already on the reports waiting for her.

When Sara climbed into bed a couple of hours later, the last thought she had was to wonder if Lena was still sitting up with her reports or if she'd been sensible and given up for the night. She could picture Lena, sitting up against a stack of pillows with a pair of reading glasses perched on her nose and a thick stack of pages resting on her knees, and Sara gave herself a mental shake. When did the prospect of glasses and a messy ponytail become thrilling?

Maybe she needed to hit a club or two on Friday. Amaya was taking the early Saturday classes. She could afford to have a night of no-strings fun with someone and a lazy morning in bed.

Sara rolled over in bed and forced the mental image of Lena out of her mind, but sleep took a long time to find her that night.

***

Except on Friday night, instead of going to a club, Sara found herself in her office at the studio, staring at her accounting spreadsheets with more financial papers spread out beside her computer. The rent letter sat on her desk, exuding lurking menace no matter how hard she tried to ignore it. She had tried putting it in the drawer, but she could still feel it.

Even the letterhead looked evil. It was a strange, swirling symbol with the company name in tiny type below: LegionInc. Sara rubbed her aching forehead. No matter how she manipulated the figures, she couldn't afford the rent. She didn't think anyone in the building would be able to.

She closed the spreadsheet, opened Chrome, and typed into the search box. A page of results popped up, but before she could click onto the LegionInc company website, there was a knock at the door.

It opened when she called out and there was Lena, an uncertain but hopeful look in her eyes. "Hello."

Sara immediately forgot all about LegionInc, rent, and spreadsheets. "Hi!"

"Am I disturbing you?"

She turned around in her chair so she couldn't see the laptop screen. "Definitely not. What's up?"

"I fell asleep again." Lena's smile was wry. "It's not just you."

"I'm disappointed." Sara shook her head mournfully. "I thought I was special."

Lena chuckled. "It's not you, it's me."

"That's what they always say."

"I'm sorry to be disappointingly ordinary."

"I doubt you're ever ordinary," Sara said with a wink.

A pale flush flooded Lena's cheeks. "If you think that, I'm sure you'll be disappointed."

"I doubt you'd ever be disappointing."

Sara couldn't decide whether Lena knew they were flirting or not. The flush in Lena's cheeks indicated something, but maybe her responses weren't deliberate. She could simply be responding automatically with no idea about what she was doing to Sara's heart rate. Sara should probably stop it, stop the flirting completely, because that was what a responsible business owner did. They found a way to pay the new rent and they didn't flirt with their clients.

She should be responsible. Sensible. Mature. Prudent. Everything she wasn't, in fact, but she was supposed to be changing that.

Lena's expression turned regretful. "I should go. I've got reports to read."

The unhappy look in Lena's eyes decided Sara. Possibly the way Lena bit her lip had something to do with it, too. Screw responsibility, Lena was gorgeous and possibly flirting, and Sara didn't want to resist that. If she could turn maybe-flirting into definitely something more, didn't they both deserve some fun?

She put on her warmest smile. "On a Friday night? Now that's just wrong."

Lena raised one eyebrow. "Pot calling the kettle black?"

Sara glanced down at the papers on her desk. Her elbow had caught one and slid it over the LegionInc logo on the letter, but it was clear she'd been working. "You caught me. Maybe we both need a night off."

Lena hesitated.

"You know what they say about all work and no play," Sara said, letting her voice go slightly husky.

"I think I'm already dull," Lena said. "I dream about unbalanced financial reports and waste reduction memos."

"Then maybe it's time to change that." Sara closed her laptop before gathering all the pages up and stuffing them in a drawer. "There, much better. I'll buy you a drink if you promise not to think about picking up any work until tomorrow."

There was only a tiny pause before Lena's shoulders straightened, her chin rose, and she nodded. "It's a deal."

They shook hands solemnly and this time it was Lena who giggled first and made Sara laugh.

***

When Sara suggested drinks, she had envisioned somewhere with loud music, dancing, and strong alcohol. That was what people did on a Friday night.

She hadn't expected to be sitting in a quiet coffee shop down the street from the studio, curled in the corner of a cosy booth with her fingers wrapped around a large mug of coffee. The back of the booth was so high, it blocked out most of the clatter and hiss from the coffee counter. There was soft jazz floating out of the speakers overhead. Soft jazz!

Sara hadn't done something this sweet and domestic since...ever, possibly.

She didn't even mind, because Lena was smiling and laughing, almost giggling, and Sara was beginning to find that sight and sound addictive.

A couple of hours had passed, somehow, and Sara couldn't remember what they'd talked about. She only knew it had been that long because the mug in her hands was her second bucket of coffee and she'd been trying to drink slowly all evening. As Lena relaxed, she'd shifted closer on the booth's bench until her thigh pressed against Sara's knees. It was intimate in a way Sara didn't know what to do with.

Sara knew what happened when you drank too much and got handsy on a dance-floor. She was good at suggestive remarks and that sudden realisation in a woman's eyes that she wanted Sara and it could really happen.

This was different. Lena was different. Sara was almost sure Lena wouldn't say no if she made a move, but she still didn't know if Lean had realised that. And the warm intimacy of the moment made her reluctant to shatter it and risk Lena making move away, which was the most startling part of the entire experience.

Lena tilted her head. "What are you thinking about?"

"Huh?" Sara blinked, suddenly aware that she'd been too quiet for the last couple of minutes. She forced a grin. "Who says I'm thinking?"

"You looked a million miles away," Lena said. "Am I that boring already?"

Sara's smile was more genuine. "No, definitely not. You haven't mentioned financial reports once since you got here."

"I know how to obey orders," Lena said.

"That's a quality I appreciate."

Sara could have kicked herself, because Lena's eyes widened and her face went pink. Too much, too quickly. It was hard to break some habits.

Lena practically hid behind the mug of hot chocolate and whipped cream she'd bought. When she finally lifted her face, there was a daub of chocolate syrup on her nose. Before Sara could stop herself, she reached out and swiped the spot. It was as though her entire body had been taken over by a destructive urge--or possibly her body had hijacked her brain to stop her overthinking--because she made the whole move worse by licking the syrup instead of wiping it on a napkin.

Lena stared at her. The surprise in her eyes slowly melted away replaced by...curiosity? Sara waited, but Lena didn't push away. She didn't move closer, either, but she didn't slide back and stutter something polite and too hearty.

Moving slowly, Sara put her coffee cup down and shifted closer. Lena didn't move.

Sara leaned in until their lips were almost touching and they breathed the same air. She waited for a long, long moment. Warmth puffed against her cheek with each breath Lena took, and she could see the tiny flecks of grey in Lena's green eyes. They were the kind of eyes that belonged in a novel, but they were real and beautiful.

Then Lena closed the distance and pressed her lips against Sara's. It was a chaste kiss, soft and careful, but it sent shivers down Sara's spine. She hadn't felt such a thrill from just kissing since she was a kid.

Lena drew back slightly and Sara allowed it, until the wary confusion in Lena's eyes became too much and Sara had to kiss her again to chase it away. She explored the shape of Lena's mouth, tasting sugar and chocolate and memorising the tiny breathy sound Lena made when Sara sucked lightly on her lower lip.

It was a kiss that seemed to last forever and end in a moment, a slow slide of lips and teeth that sent heat curling low in Sara's belly even though they were barely touching anywhere else.

When she drew back to catch her breath, Lena's eyes were wide and wary, but the confusion had melted away.

"Are you okay?" Sara asked, almost dreading the response.

Lena put her mug down. She tilted her head. "I haven't done that since college."

"Kissed someone?"

"Kiss someone like you." Lena wrinkled her nose. "A woman someone. I know, I'm a walking cliche."

"I would never say that."

"But you were thinking it."

"Maybe a bit." Sara grinned, feeling more confident. "Why did you stop kissing women?"

"I met a guy," Lena said. "We were together for a while." Her expression clouded. "Then I inherited a family empire and we broke up."

"Did the break-up happen before or...?"

"About two weeks after. I can't blame him. We had a life planned out, but then I had to take over Luthor Industries and we couldn't have that life any more."

The sadness in Lena's eyes tugged at something deep in Sara's chest that hadn't felt for a long time. She reached out without thinking to take Lena's hand, relieved when Lena clasped tight and didn't let go. 

"How long has it been?"

"Two years." Lena looked surprised. "It's amazing how fast time flies when you're not having fun."

"Do you miss him?"

Lena shook her head. "I miss the life I had. I thought I missed him, but I guess I'm over him."

Sara squeezed Lena's hand. "If you hadn't inherited the family empire, what would you be doing?"

"I would have finished my PhD and I'd be running a lab somewhere." Lena bit her lip for a moment. "Probably a lab my family paid for, but I'd be doing research instead of worrying about shareholders and profit statements."

"Why can't you do that anyway? There must be someone else who can take over."

Lena sighed. "It has to be a Luthor and I'm the only one left."

"Oh." Sara couldn't imagine that. Being the only one left, having to take on a role she hated...she hadn't always been close to her family, but they were there and they'd cheered her on every step of the way to realising her dream.

The dream that would be taken away if she didn't find a way to pay the new rent. Sara pushed the thought away ruthlessly. Tonight was supposed to be fun.

She smiled at Lena, waggling her eyebrows in a comically suggestive way that worked beautifully: the sadness melted away from Lena's faced and she even laughed.

"I've thought a new penalty for talking about work," Sara said.

"You asked me about it!"

"Doesn't matter. You talked about work, you have to pay the price."

"And what's the price?"

Sara leaned closer. "Kiss me."

A smile curved Lena's lips and made her eyes sparkle. Sara's breath caught in her throat.

"That doesn't seem like a punishment," Lena said.

"Who said anything about punishment?"

The kiss started chaste again, a slow press of lips, but it quickly flared into something more. Hotter, messier, needier. Sara stopped holding back and Lena met her every step of the way, licking into Sara's mouth and taking possession with an assurance that made Sara's heart race and her toes curl. She tugged Lena further into the booth, where the high walls hid them from the room, and she tangled her hands in Lena's hair. Her breathing turned ragged, but it matched Lena's and that was such a good feeling, she didn't want it to end. 

She didn't realise how late it had grown until the lights overhead blinked on and off twice. Lena lifted her head, blinking and confused, but her expression held no wariness this time. Sara realised the soft jazz music had stopped and she could hear pointed clattering from the direction of the coffee counter.

"I think they're closing," Lena said.

"I think they are." 

And something about that seemed so strangely funny, Sara couldn't help laughing. Lena's shoulders shook with her own laughter as she dropped her head and muffled the sound in Sara's neck, which did all sorts of interesting things to her equilibrium.

"We should probably go," Sara said, between gasps of laughter.

Lena mumbled something against Sara's shoulder. Sara poked her and Lena lifted her head. The bright flush in her face and the sparkle in her eyes made Sara itch to lean forward and kiss her again.

"My apartment isn't far away," Sara found herself saying instead.

One eyebrow rose. "Ms Lance, are you propositioning me?"

"Yes."

"We haven't even dated."

"What do you call this?"

"Coffee."

"In most civilisations, that qualifies as a first date," Sara said, with a smirk.

"And you expect me to put out on a first date?"

"I never said anything about putting out," Sara said, although she had been hoping. "I'm just saying that my apartment is two blocks away and I can get great bagels from the bakery downstairs for breakfast."

Lena's smile was wide and happy. "Now that you've thrown in bagels for breakfast, how can I resist?"

Sara pressed a hard kiss onto Lena's mouth that almost turned into something more, but the lights blinked again and they took the hint.

***

Morning arrived slowly, golden light filtering through the window blinds and tracing patterns across rumpled white sheets. Sara had never considered herself to be particularly romantic, but she lay with her cheek propped on her fist, watching as the warm beams of light slid up Lena's naked back and across her sleeping face, unable to look away or nudge Lena awake.

It was unbearably sweet and ridiculous, but Sara found she didn't care.

They'd barely made it through the door of her apartment before kissing and tearing at each other's clothes. There was a trail of discarded shoes, shirts, and underwear leading from the door to the couch. Sara grinned at the memory. That had been followed by some memorable moments against the wall outside her kitchen, followed by a break for ice-cream--to regain their strength--and then a spectacular time in her bed that had left them both too wrung out to do more than pull up a sheet and curl up for sleep.

Lena had clearly done more than just kiss a girl in college, even if she hadn't done it since.

A sliver of light moved across Lena's eyes. Her lashes fluttered and her nose wrinkled, which Sara found disturbingly adorable.

Lena's eyes opened and a warm, beautiful smile swept across her face. "Hello."

Sara couldn't help smiling in response. "Hello yourself."

"Were you watching me?"

"No," Sara said, making no effort to sound sincere.

"Liar."

Sara shrugged. "I woke up. You sleep a lot."

Lena shifted and stretched, making a sound almost like a low purr that sent a surge of raw heat flooding through Sara's body. Finding a way to get Lena to make that sound again immediately became a high priority. When Lena curled up on her side again, head pillowed on her arm, her smile had acquired a hint of shy pleasure. "I don't usually. This feels hedonistic."

"What, sleeping past dawn?"

"Sleeping past dawn." Lena lifted one shoulder. "Waking up in a beautiful woman's bed."

"You should try that more often."

"Sleeping?" A teasing smile twitched at the corner of Lena's mouth.

Sara leaned closer and dropped her voice. "The other part."

"I should?"

Sara moved until their lips barely brushed as she spoke. "Definitely."

"I'll take that under advisement," Lena said, sounding far too serious and calm for the moment.

"You do that," Sara mumbled against Lena's lips, and then they didn't say anything for a long, long time.

***

Sara had classes that afternoon, otherwise she would have tried to tempt Lena into staying in bed all day. Although Lena had an evening meeting, so she probably wouldn't have succeeded anyway. She told herself it was for the best, because a lost weekend with a client wasn't a good idea, until Lena called just before midnight and arrived on her doorstep ten minutes later.

It wasn't quite a lost weekend--Lena spend most of Sunday afternoon sitting on the couch with a laptop, a phone, and a frown--but it was the next best thing, and Sara didn't let herself think about what would happen next.

They'd known each other for less than a week. Nothing that flared up this fast could last.

But Lena called again on Tuesday, and dropped by Sara's office after class on Thursday, and then there was another weekend...

And somehow, they'd been seeing each other for nearly two months before Sara knew what had hit her. She even missed Lena when they weren't together and found breakfast alone unpleasantly lonely. 

It couldn't last. Relationships this good never did, in Sara's experience. 

***

A second letter arrived from LegionInc, reiterating the new terms and rent. Sara spent an afternoon going through the accounts again, trying to find a way to make the numbers shift, but she couldn't. A couple of times lately, she had been tempted to talk to Lena about it. She knew business and finance better than Sara, maybe she could find a way Sara hadn't seen yet.

There was a knock on the office door and Sara turned, a smile already forming at the prospect of seeing Lena. It was Thursday. Lena always came to Amaya's gentle yoga flow class and met Sara after.

It was only when her downstairs neighbour's head popped through the gap that Sara realised it was much too early. Amaya's class hadn't even begun.

Martin Stein ran a bookstore on the ground floor of the building. He had taken on a black kid last year, something about training up an apprentice, but Firestorm Books was his project and he had elected himself as the leader-slash-spokesperson of all the businesses in the building. Nobody else had his experience or his level of tenacious persistence, so nobody had ever objected. He waved to the letter on Sara's desk.

"Ms Lance," he said, formal as ever. "I'm surprised you've also had one of those."

Sara frowned. "What?"

"The letter from LegionInc," he said. "I would have thought you, of all people, would have been granted a relief. In fact, that's why I came here--to ask you to intercede on our behalf. You know none of us can afford these exorbitant rent rises. They're criminal."

Sara squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and opened them. Stein was still there, looking at her expectantly. "I'm sorry, what are you talking about?"

A look of understanding slowly dawned across his face. "You don't know?"

"I don't know what?"

"I'm sorry, I--" he broke off and cleared his throat. "Miss Luthor. There are rumours about...well, about the two of you...and, ah..."

Sara grinned. "I know what the rumours are."

"Then they're true?"

"Mostly."

"You do know who she is, don't you?"

"Lena Luthor." Sara lifted her chin. "One of Amaya's clients."

"And you know what she does for a living?"

"She runs Luthor Industries."

Stein curled his lip. "She was a brilliant chemist, I read some of her papers, but thanks to her brother's criminal--well, that's not important. I'm sure she's already told you all about it."

Lena had, one night when she was frustrated and they'd emptied a couple of bottles of wine over dinner. The story had come tumbling out and Sara had been torn between fury at the family who killed Lena's dreams and admiration at Lena's determination to do the right thing. It had been the first time Sara started to really consider the idea that their relationship might be more than a fling.

"Do you know anything about LegionInc?" Stein asked.

"Just what's on their website," Sara said.

"You haven't dug any further?"

"I wouldn't even know where to start."

"Then it's a good thing I do. When you trace it back through layers of shell companies, LegionInc is owned by Luthor Industries."

Sara's stomach dropped. Her skin went cold.

"Your Miss Luthor is the person responsible for our current predicament."

***

Sara barely heard the buzz of conversation outside her door as Amaya's class arrived and went into the studio. Stein's words were still tumbling around her mind, whirling and battering against each other no matter how hard she tried to untangle them.

Stein had offered to walk Sara through the proof he'd found, but she didn't need it. She'd known him for long enough to know he wouldn't lie and he wouldn't have come to her without being very certain about his facts.

Luthor Industries owned LegionInc.

Lena Luthor ran Luthor Industries.

Lena was LegionInc.

Lena owned the company that was probably going to put Sara, Stein, and everyone else in the building out of business.

Stein even had an idea about why. The building was valuable. It could be converted into luxury apartments and rented out for three times the money it was currently bringing in. He'd checked with a lawyer: everything they were doing was perfectly legal. And far cheaper for LegionInc than forcing them out any other way, thanks to the contracts they'd all signed.

Sara wished she didn't believe him.

She'd known Lena was too good to be true.

Time passed. She was so deep in her thoughts, she didn't hear the chatter as Amaya's class poured out of the studio.

The knock at the door startled her and she looked up in time to see Lena push it open and step inside. There was a bright smile curling Lena's lips and her eyes were sparkling.

Sara couldn't feel what her face was doing.

After a long pause, Lena's smile faded. "What's wrong?"

Sara's mouth was dry. She had to swallow hard before she could force words out. "Have you heard of LegionInc?"

"I don't--"

"When you peel back the red tape, it's a Luthor Industries company," Sara said.

Lena blinked, but she nodded. "LI has a lot of subsidiaries. LegionInc could be one."

"It is."

"If you say so." Lena looked wary. "Why are you looking into it?"

Sara picked up the latest LegionInc letter and held it out wordlessly. After a moment, Lena took it. Her eyes flickered as she read it quickly and then reread it, more slowly.

The colour drained from her face. "I didn't know."

"I'd like to believe that," Sara said.

"I didn't know, I promise." Tired lines were forming around Lena's mouth and eyes. It had been weeks since she looked this exhausted. "Sara, this isn't me. This isn't how I do business, I swear to you."

"But it's how LegionInc does business and you own LegionInc. You told me that in your business, the buck stops with you, and that's why you're killing yourself to turn Luthor Industries around after what your brother did." Sara crossed her arms over her chest and glared up at Lena. "If the buck stops with you, then LegionInc is your responsibility. You're the one trying to drive everyone in this building out, which will probably put most of us out of business. You're the one who isn't satisfied with a good profit and wants more. That's what LegionInc is doing. That's what LI is doing. That's what you're doing."

There was a long, tense silence, and then Lena nodded. She drew up straighter, pulled her shoulders back, and her face became a cool blank mask. "You're right. This is what I do. I should go now."

She opened the door and slipped out before Sara could stop her. Sara stared at the space where Lena had stood, trying to understand what had just happened but her thoughts felt sluggish and disjointed. Lena had just...folded. Crumpled. Gone without any attempt to fight back.

There was a knock on the door and Sara had a fleeting moment of hope that it was Lena, coming back to fix things, but it was Amaya, looking worried. "Are you all right? Lena just ran out of here looking like a ghost was after her."

Sara tried to force a confident grin, but she suspected it looked more like a grimace from Amaya's reaction. "I'm fine. I don't think we'll see Lena around here again."

"That's too bad. I thought she might be good for you." Amaya offered a sympathetic smile. "Can I do anything?"

"Not a damn thing." Sara shrugged. "This is what I get for hitting on the clients. Remind me not to do that again."

"I will." Amaya started to turn away, but she stopped. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do?"

"I'll be fine." Sara rolled her eyes at Amaya's doubtful looks. "I'm good at bouncing back, don't worry about me."

Amaya shook her head and left, and Sara slammed the lid of her laptop down. There was a bar somewhere with a stool and enough vodka to make everything better for a while and she needed to find it.

As she turned off the lights and locked the door, Sara remembered that Lena still had the LegionInc letter. She shrugged. It didn't matter. There would be another.

***

Bars and vodka didn't make Sara feel better. A woman with pretty brown eyes who should have ticked every box approached Sara at the first bar she found and she tried, she really did, but it all felt empty and fake. She left the place mostly sober, didn't make it through the door of another one, and gave up for the night.

She tried again the next night and it felt even worse. She stayed home after that.

It was Lena's fault. She'd only been in Sara's life for a few weeks, but she'd done something--broken something--and Sara couldn't make it go back to the way it was before. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Lena was meant to be a bit of fun, an itch she needed to scratch, and now Sara couldn't make her go away.

After a week, she realised she missed Lena. She vaguely resented Lena for that, too, because she had always done a damn good job of not missing people and the hollow feeling inside was unpleasant.

Worse than unpleasant. It was an ache that wouldn't go away.

Amaya was frustratingly sympathetic and understanding, even when Sara was cranky and horrible, which only made her feel more irritated. 

The only times Sara felt better were when she was teaching or deep in her own yoga practice. Teaching was good because all her classes were energetic, noisy, perfect for shutting out stray thoughts of Lena. When she was in the studio on her own, she pushed herself into the most strenuous poses she knew, using the focus they required to calm her mind and push away everything else.

Days passed, and Amaya's sympathetic smiles turned worried. Sara knew she was driving herself too hard, but it was healthier than other alternatives, right?

Two weeks to the day after Lena left, a letter arrived from LegionInc. Sara pulled it out of the mailbox on her way up to open the studio for the day and the strange swirling logo caught her eye immediately. She went straight to her office and closed the door, then she dropped the envelope on the desk and retreated the two steps to the other side of the room to stare.

It was probably another rent notification. The new rent was due soon and she hadn't figured out a way to pay apart from draining her savings. That wouldn't last long.

Sara mentally slapped herself. It was only a letter. A simple sheet of paper. It wasn't going to catch fire or explode.

She took a deep breath, moved forward, and picked it up. Slid a thumb under the flap. Started to open it slowly, before shaking her head and ripping the envelope.

It took her two passes before the words sank in. She read it a third time, just to make sure.

The corners of her lips twitched. For the first time in two weeks, she felt a smile try tugging at them.

The sound of the receptionist arriving pulled Sara out of her daze. She read the letter a final time before putting it away in her desk and hurrying out of the office to get ready for her first class.

***

When she left in the evening, Sr noticed Firestorm Books was having a last-minute sale and party to celebrate. There were cakes from the bakery next door and she suspected the streamers and bunting had been supplied by the wedding planners on the second floor. The silver bells were a give-away. She thought about going in and sharing the happy mood, but she walked past the door and headed home instead.

When she got there, she pulled out a bottle of red wine and opened it to breathe. She grabbed a carton of pasta sauce from the fridge and set it next to a saucepan to cook later. She changed into a white sweater and jeans, remembered the tomato pasta sauce and pulled out a brown sweater instead.

Then she curled up on the sofa to wait.

Sara couldn't have explained why did any of it. She couldn't even explain what she was waiting for.

That was a lie. She knew, but even thinking about it made her feel strange, so she pushed away all thoughts and flipped on the TV where she found the most improbably silly show with spaceships and laser guns that any channel offered and settled in.

It must have been a marathon, because the credits for the third episode were playing when Sara heard someone knocking on the door. She dropped the remote in her scramble to get up, so she had to waste precious timing searching under the sofa for it. A second knock came as she reached for the lock, and Sara knew she looked flustered and dishevelled as she opened the door but she couldn't wait any longer.

Lena stood on the other side.

She was wearing a dark suit despite the late hour and her expression was a careful blend of hope and uncertainty. There were dark circles under her eyes and faint lines between her brows, as if she hadn't been sleeping again. Her make-up was too perfect and her hair was scraped up in a tight ponytail, which meant she'd come straight from a meeting.

Sara couldn't tear her eyes away. Her heart felt like it would thump out of her chest.

"Hi," Lena said, soft and hesitant.

Sara had to swallow hard. "Hi."

There was a long, awkward silence. Sara tried to think of something to say, and she could see the same struggle in Lena's face, but nothing felt right. 

Eventually she said, "I got a letter from LegionInc this morning."

Lena nodded. Her expression barely changed, but Sara thought she saw a little more hope in her eyes. Maybe.

Or it could have been Sara's own hopes reflected there.

"Thank you," Sara said. "They apologised. I think everyone in the building got the same letter."

"I hope they did." There was a hint of steel in Lena's voice that Sara had never heard before. "I had to fire people to make that right."

Sara felt her eyebrows shoot up. "You fired people?"

Lena glanced behind her. "Do you mind if I come in?"

Sara stepped back to allow her in, closing the door behind her and leaning back against it. A small voice inside chastised her for not inviting Lena to sit, but the voice sounded a lot like her father's and she was able to ignore it. The sofa had too many good memories. Standing in the entryway felt more controlled.

"You were right," Lena said. "I was so proud of what I was trying to do, pull everything back after Lex...I was too proud of it. I didn't dig deep enough into what he'd allowed to happen. I was trying to make Luthor Industries financially secure, but I didn't look under the surface." She made an unhappy face. "I didn't want to look."

Sara didn't say anything, but she tried to look encouraging. It was something she'd never really done before, so she didn't know how, but she must have been doing it right because Lena looked a little more confident.

"I've spent the last few weeks looking," Lena said. "I know you think I work too hard, and you're right. I've been stretched too thin, trying to do too much at once, and that blinded me to a lot of things. It was easier not to go looking for more problems when I already had enough trying to fix the mess by brother made and make sure it couldn't happen again. A lot of people were relying on me for their livelihood, but I shouldn't have taken the easier way."

That was too far, and Sara couldn't stop herself reaching out and murmuring, "No, that's not--"

Lena shrank back slightly and shook her head. "It's fair."

"It's not. You're being too hard on yourself."

"After you nearly lost your business because of something one of my companies did?" Lena grimaced. "It wasn't just your building. LegionInc was doing that too other businesses, too. My brother allowed cancers like that to grow in our portfolio, because that was the way he did business. It's not the way I want to do business, but it's hard to stop that kind of mentality once it starts." She sighed. "Luthor Industries is too big for one person to know what every department and subsidiary company is doing."

"I could have told you that," Sara said lightly.

For the first time, the ghost of a smile hovered around the corner of Lena's mouth for a moment, before it faded away. "A good friend has been telling me that for a long time."

"The friend who told you to take up yoga?"

"The same one." Lena's smile almost appeared again. "She's a journalist. She's not afraid to tell me when I'm making mistakes."

"Probably just before she publishes them."

Lena shrugged. "She's fair to me."

"What else did she tell you?"

"That I need to find people I trust and ask them to help," Lena said. "So that's what I've done. It's going to take a while, but I'm restructuring and I'm learning to delegate."

"LegionInc was part of that?"

"It was the first thing on my list."

Sara offered her a small smile. "Thank you."

"I should have done it a long time ago."

"You're bad at accepting thanks, aren't you?"

"Only when I don't feel I've earned it."

This time, when Sara reached out, Lena didn't shrink back, and she was able to squeeze Lena's hand. "Thank you. From all of us."

A hint of pink appeared on Lena's cheeks and she cleared her throat. "I'm taking some more advice."

"Really? I should meet this friend of yours."

A smile ghosted across Lena's lips. "I'd like it if you did."

For a moment, Sara's breath caught in her throat as a surge of hope tried to choke her. She swallowed hard and tried to sound normal. "What's the advice you're taking?"

"Getting out of my office," Lena said. Her lips curved again and this time the smile stayed in place, a faint hint at the corners of her mouth that made her look less strained. "I'm going back to what I actually love doing, for one day a week, at least. The lab, doing real research and creating things." She wrinkled her nose. "Things that will probably become Luthor Industries products eventually, but it's the work that I've missed."

Sara couldn't help grinning. "So you'll be playing a sexy scientist once a week? I can dig that."

She winced as soon as the words were out of her mouth, but it was too late to take them back. Lena's eyes widened and then a full smile appeared, mischief sparkling in her eyes, and Sara wanted to punch the air because, for the first time in weeks, she could breathe again. If Lena could look at her like that, then maybe everything would be all right.

"You like that idea?" Lena said.

Sara used the hand she was still holding to pull Lena a little closer. "I'm definitely interested in that idea. If you're still interested in..." She couldn't find the right words, so she settled for a shrug that she hoped was expressive enough.

The warmth in Lena's eyes was almost an answer on its own. "I'm still interested, yes."

"When you walked away, I thought--I don't know what I thought. Relationships aren't something I'm good at."

"I'm sorry," Lena said. "I should have done that better. I should have explained."

"I thought you weren't coming back."

"I thought about it," Lena said, ducking her head. "I was embarrassed. But...I missed you."

A burst of something warm and thrilling filled Sara's chest, a feeling so unexpected she didn't know what to do with it. The hope filling Lena's eyes was too much, because it matched hers too closely, so Sara did what she always did when words escaped: she acted.

She kissed Lena, a clumsy mash of lips and noses that felt better than anything so ungraceful should, because Lena was kissing her back. Lena kissed with fierce passion that made heat rise in Sara's belly, and that was every word she needed. She pushed Lena against the wall, kissed her until they were both panting for breath and shifting restlessly against each other, and Lena was with her for every gasp and desperate touch.

It was everything she'd missed and more, and as Sara kissed a trail down Lena's jaw, she allowed herself to realise something. What they were doing might have started as a fling, but it hadn't been one for a while. She'd missed it too much when it was gone. She'd missed waking up with Lena, working side by side on the sofa together, Lena's weird love for peanut butter and chocolate spread sandwiches.

She'd missed Lena, every part of her. The feeling was huge and terrifying in its newness, but Sara didn't want to run away from it.

As she allowed Lena to guide her to the sofa, Sara smiled. Running was the furthest thing from her mind and it felt good.

It felt a little like love, and that wasn't scary at all.


End file.
